The story of Canadian mining in Latin America has, since the 1990s, primarily been driven by the expansion of gold projects across the continent. This implied important transformations of mining itself. New mines were usually open pit mines, huge projects that impacted the local environment – lands and waters – in unprecedented ways. Because these projects almost always developed beside rural communities they raised new risks and problems for local peoples. The responses of local people have created a new line of socio-environmental conflicts in Latin America. Like others (conflicts over oil and gas, hydro-development, biofuels) these are driven by the contemporary boom in natural resource extraction. First appearing in the late 1990s the conflicts provoked by transnational mining have developed into important political movements across Latin America.

To better understand their scope and individual trajectories, MICLA provides here a tally of the socio-environmental conflicts surrounding a Canadian mining project – 85 cases in all. This listing takes in all the cases we have found since the Canadian mining boom began in the 1990s. It introduces these conflicts and serves as an archive of documents for those who would like to learn more about this issue. Each case provides a short chronicle, a map, and a timeline of events and related documentation.

Navigate with the mapper or click Country View to find the full listing.

PAST

Place mouse over country to see associated conflicts or choose Map view.